RE: Check Ligament

["Annette Gordon" <agordon@worldofwonder.net>]

Dear Johnna Robb

My horse Kitty sparined her check ligament and deep digital flexor tendon at
about the same time. She did in the field by doing her skidding halts in thick
clay like mud. I posed Ridecamp for advice and anecdotes and got a lot of
useful info back. Maybe some of it has been archived. 

Basically ligaments of any kind take a long time to come right even just a
sprain. And the longer you take and the more careful you are the better. Here
we are in January and Kitty has only just started to do some trotting. 

She has been months off work during which time I have progressed from hand
walking then hand walking a bit futher then hand walking a bit further then
riding at walk a short distance then at walk a bit futher then a bit further
etc. Now she is being walked out in hilly country for as much as an hour and a
half with a little bit of trotting on a firm/hard surface. I'm in the UK by
the way and we have had a lot of rain and there is mud everywhere. I have to
avoid it as much as possible and we certainly can do now more than walk
carefully acrros the bits we do meet. 

To begin with I used Sports Medicine Boots on her forelegs to help take the
strain especially when I started to ride her. Gradually I started to do
without them and now she hacks out without these boots. I have another horse
that I can pony her from and I started to do without the boots when I was
ponying her. That way she got used to the stress but without my riding weight.


It is all slow slow gradual gradual. Her legs still do get puffy but now only
after she's being standing in her stall for too long. Before they would
sometimes be hot and puffy after excersise I took this as a sign to back off a
bit - maybe shorten the distance or walk with her a bit and ride with her a
bit. 

Incidentally with hills that are particularly steep I was and still am
dismounting and walking down with her to take the strain of the ligament.
Going down is worse for ligaments than going up hill.

She has visited the vet twice now and has had an ultra-sound scan on her
ligaments and tendons twice. The second time showed a lot of improvement and
only after this scan did I feel that it was appropriate to ride for longer
periods and to think about beginning to do some trotting. 

After the first scan my vet said you can turn her out. I waited a month to do
this and tried turning her out in a small paddock - she went crazy with joy,
bucked like a mad thing and the ligament problem was put back a month. I had
to deal with heat and swelling for a couple of weeks. I stopped riding her
went back to hand walking and gradually started to increase everything again. 

What can I say? The prognosis is good but only if you are patient and don't
push too much too soon. Vets are great but they don't know your horse as well
as you so you have to heed their advice and then err on the side of caution
when talking it. My horse Kitty hates to be in wind, rain and mud in the
winter and will fence run and gallop about until someone notices her and
brings her in. Turning her out even now is not an option for us I'm afraid.
Maybe it's easier in Arizona where you have a lot of desert and the ground is
hard and doesn't pull like the mud we have at the moment. 

For the future I feel that if all continues to go well I shall increase the
distance we walk increase the amount of trotting we do and look forward to a
short canter in April!!! 

In the back of my mind I'm saying maybe a 10 or 15 mile pleasure ride in
August, but we'll see when we get there. 

What I want is to get my horse through this and strengthen those ligaments so
we can compete properly. A slight sprain if not allowed to heal and if not
stressed gently on a regular basis to build back strength could turn into
something far worse. So although people around you may think you are being
over cautious you are not. If you rush and things go wrong you could end up
with a horse that is lame for life that you have to either retire or if you
can't afford that have shot! This is the harsh reality I remind myself of
everytime I want to go faster. 

Good luck and hope this helps. 

Bye 

Annette

PS I have also used a couple of leg braces and linments one in particular
which I bought when over in the US is called Equitite, is particularly good
and I used it in the early stages of rehab. I sometimes reuse it on her if I
feel we pushed too far today. 

_______________________________________________________________________________
From: Olympian06@aol.com on Wed, Jan 20, 1999 7:11 am
Subject: Check Ligament
To: ridecamp@endurance.net

Hi all....in September of 98 my horse strained his check ligament.  I was told
by my vet to give him 2 months off and let the leg heal naturally.  So, I
turned him out and let him be a "horse".  Well, when he came back from his
"horse" experience, he must have had fun because he had developed a nice
splint on the opposite leg?!  I guessed it was from playing with the other
horse.  Well, at the end of November, I started hand walking him for an hour a
day and the leg looked great, no swelling, no heat, no nothing.  So in
December I took him out and started riding him.  We just walked for a while
and then would trot alitle, not much, just some.  We started adding in some
light dressage work and had no problem UNLESS I didn't polo wrap his legs,
then the following day he would have a slight puffiness on the upper inside of
his leg.  So then in Jan we have been going on some nice little hour trail
rides, mainly flat and have been doing alittle trotting, 2 or so minutes at a
time, (must I remind you that he is an Arab and really wants to GO!!!)  Well,
yesterday I rode him for a little and today I checked his leg and it was puffy
and warm again today and there seems to be a splint or something starting to
develop.  He isn't lame and it doesn't seem sensitive to the touch.  So I hand
walked him and ran nice cold water on it for 15 minutes and put some standing
wraps on him.  

Well,.......my question is..........what do I do?  Have any of you had similar
problem?  Was I moving to fast, not doing something right? Maybe it isn't a
check ligament at all?  I would really appreciate some feed back, I am about
ready to go crazy.  I sure wish they could talk....it would make everything so
much easier!!!  Thanks again for you time and any advice you can offer!!! 

Johnna Robb
N. Arizona


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Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 22:59:36 EST
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